Well, writing in English is easier than talking (for a person already good at writing), because I have a spellchecker, I can use an online translator when in doubt, I can slow down whenever necessary, and I can review my written text and rewrite some parts of it before publishing it, and you wouldn’t see any of that. If you heard me talk in English, it would probably be quite obvious.
I am also exposed to English a lot, given that I spend a lot of time on internet and that is mostly on English-speaking websites (there are simply not enough Slovak speakers to get a sufficiently large community for a sufficiently nerdy interest, and I am not interested in talking to normies about politics); as a software developer practically all documentation related to my work is in English, plus I often work in international teams; and if I read a book, it is usually in English either because it wasn’t translated to Slovak or because the translation is not available on Library Genesis.
Plus I am interested in languages and somewhat obsessive about grammar (the kind of person who would read an article on differences between hyphens, en-dashes, and em-dashes), that probably helps, too.
I am probably in top 1% of English-as-a-second-language-speakers (or rather -writers) in my country. There are a few people around me who have spent years living in USA or UK, and I regularly surprise them by knowing some English words they don’t. (This reminded me of a situation with my former girlfriend who once read an article in English and commented loudly “what the hell are the ‘crustaceans’?” and I automatically gave her the Slovak translation, and she burst in tears, because she has recently returned from a year-long trip in UK and she was very proud of her English knowledge, and now she was like “how is it possible that I don’t understand this word, you immediately know it, and I still don’t understand what it means even after you have translated it?”—the last part, of course, was unrelated to knowing English.)
Where I perceive my weaknesses:
I use complicated words where simpler ones would suffice. That is kinda expected of a nerd… but actually when I speak in Slovak, I try to simplify things whenever possible, and I am very proud of that skill.[1] (It really helps me explain things to my kids, or give lectures to a general audience.) It’s just that in English, the Latin-based words come to my mind first, because those are “international”. Plus, in English, the simple way usually involves using one of those short words that have 100 different meanings, and putting it together with the right preposition… which is a skill I mostly gave up on. (This is like the “Feynman in Brazil” effect, where he impressed the Portuguese-speaking audience by using complicated words such as “consequentemente”, but of course that is not difficult for an English-speaker. It would be more difficult for him to know the simple Portuguese words for “therefore” or “so”.)
I know few synonyms in English; or rather, I know them passively, but when I speak or write, I can quickly recall only one of them, so my active vocabulary is limited along that dimension.
Even when I passively know the synonyms, one of them automatically comes to my mind, so I almost never use the others. (Unless I consciously revise the comment before posting it; as I did in this paragraph, twice: “practically never” → “almost never”, “rewrite the comment” → “revise the comment”.)
I cannot joke in English, which is something I do in Slovak all the time. The kind of jokes I make require precise timing and knowing the extent of the meaning of the words: noticing some potential for pun that can neither be too obvious, nor take too much time to process after getting the hint.
Composing a poem—virtually impossible. If I tried, someone would probably remind me that I pronounce the key words incorrectly and in English they actually don’t rhyme.
I feel uncertain about using prepositions. That’s where I typically made errors at school exams. Dunno, maybe after those years I mostly learned to use them right; but I still feel the uncertainty.
tl;dr—my written English is decent, but not as good as my native language, and the spoken English is so-so
quoting Constantine the Philosopher: “I would rather say five words / speaking with my mind / so that my brothers understand / than a myriad words incomprehensible.”
This surprises me, given the writing quality of your longform comments.
Well, writing in English is easier than talking (for a person already good at writing), because I have a spellchecker, I can use an online translator when in doubt, I can slow down whenever necessary, and I can review my written text and rewrite some parts of it before publishing it, and you wouldn’t see any of that. If you heard me talk in English, it would probably be quite obvious.
I am also exposed to English a lot, given that I spend a lot of time on internet and that is mostly on English-speaking websites (there are simply not enough Slovak speakers to get a sufficiently large community for a sufficiently nerdy interest, and I am not interested in talking to normies about politics); as a software developer practically all documentation related to my work is in English, plus I often work in international teams; and if I read a book, it is usually in English either because it wasn’t translated to Slovak or because the translation is not available on Library Genesis.
Plus I am interested in languages and somewhat obsessive about grammar (the kind of person who would read an article on differences between hyphens, en-dashes, and em-dashes), that probably helps, too.
I am probably in top 1% of English-as-a-second-language-speakers (or rather -writers) in my country. There are a few people around me who have spent years living in USA or UK, and I regularly surprise them by knowing some English words they don’t. (This reminded me of a situation with my former girlfriend who once read an article in English and commented loudly “what the hell are the ‘crustaceans’?” and I automatically gave her the Slovak translation, and she burst in tears, because she has recently returned from a year-long trip in UK and she was very proud of her English knowledge, and now she was like “how is it possible that I don’t understand this word, you immediately know it, and I still don’t understand what it means even after you have translated it?”—the last part, of course, was unrelated to knowing English.)
Where I perceive my weaknesses:
I use complicated words where simpler ones would suffice. That is kinda expected of a nerd… but actually when I speak in Slovak, I try to simplify things whenever possible, and I am very proud of that skill.[1] (It really helps me explain things to my kids, or give lectures to a general audience.) It’s just that in English, the Latin-based words come to my mind first, because those are “international”. Plus, in English, the simple way usually involves using one of those short words that have 100 different meanings, and putting it together with the right preposition… which is a skill I mostly gave up on. (This is like the “Feynman in Brazil” effect, where he impressed the Portuguese-speaking audience by using complicated words such as “consequentemente”, but of course that is not difficult for an English-speaker. It would be more difficult for him to know the simple Portuguese words for “therefore” or “so”.)
I know few synonyms in English; or rather, I know them passively, but when I speak or write, I can quickly recall only one of them, so my active vocabulary is limited along that dimension.
Even when I passively know the synonyms, one of them automatically comes to my mind, so I almost never use the others. (Unless I consciously revise the comment before posting it; as I did in this paragraph, twice: “practically never” → “almost never”, “rewrite the comment” → “revise the comment”.)
I cannot joke in English, which is something I do in Slovak all the time. The kind of jokes I make require precise timing and knowing the extent of the meaning of the words: noticing some potential for pun that can neither be too obvious, nor take too much time to process after getting the hint.
Composing a poem—virtually impossible. If I tried, someone would probably remind me that I pronounce the key words incorrectly and in English they actually don’t rhyme.
I feel uncertain about using prepositions. That’s where I typically made errors at school exams. Dunno, maybe after those years I mostly learned to use them right; but I still feel the uncertainty.
tl;dr—my written English is decent, but not as good as my native language, and the spoken English is so-so
quoting Constantine the Philosopher: “I would rather say five words / speaking with my mind / so that my brothers understand / than a myriad words incomprehensible.”